System and Method for Identifying Relevant Information for an Enterprise

ABSTRACT

A system and method are provided for finding and retrieving information within an enterprise that is relevant to enterprise problems, enterprise opportunities, and unexpected or interesting events. The method includes scanning content related to a process conducted by an enterprise, where the process includes one or more process steps; identifying a problem, opportunity or event associated with a process step (an enterprise stress point); indexing the scanned content with respect to the enterprise stress point; determining whether the scanned content is information relevant to the problem, opportunity or event; and providing relevant information to a user. The relevant information includes a description or discussion of a contemporaneous or previous experience of the enterprise regarding the problem, opportunity or event.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This patent application is a continuation of pending InternationalPatent Application PCT/EP2010/056273 that designates the United Statesand is titled “System and Method for Identifying Relevant Informationfor an Enterprise” that was filed on May 7, 2010. The disclosure ofPCT/EP2010/056273 is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to enterprise software, and more particularly toa software aid for finding information which is relevant to problems,opportunities, and/or unexpected or interesting events affectingprocesses conducted by the enterprise.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

An enterprise (which may be any organization carrying on activities forsome purpose) generally has goals and processes designed to achievethose goals. Problems in the enterprise will generally impact thesuccess of one or more processes; these problems must be identified in afocused and efficient manner. Persons in the enterprise (users of anenterprise system) need to be alerted to problems that may cause a riskto processes for which they are responsible. A user needing to solve aproblem will want to have information at his disposal which is relevantto the problem, particularly information about contemporaneous and pastexperiences in the enterprise that are relevant to the problem. The userwill also want to collaborate with other users on solving the problem.

Accordingly, it is desirable to implement a system that identifies andretrieves information that is relevant to a problem associated with aprocess, and directs that information to users most concerned with theproblem.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

In accordance with the disclosure, a system and method are provided forfinding and retrieving information within an enterprise that is relevantto enterprise problems, enterprise opportunities, and unexpected orinteresting events. As the system searches for enterprise information,it indexes current items (e.g. circulating e-mails) and past items (e.g.archived memos) to enrich the knowledge of the system relating to theproblem, opportunity, or event.

According to a first aspect of the disclosure, a system for findinginformation relevant to a process performed by an enterprise or to anenterprise stress point of said process includes a computing deviceconfigured to scan content related to a process conducted by anenterprise, where the process includes one or more process steps;identify a problem, opportunity or event (an enterprise stress point)associated with the process step; index the scanned content with respectto the enterprise stress point; determine whether the scanned content isinformation relevant to the problem, opportunity or event; and providerelevant information to a user. The relevant information includes adescription or discussion of a previous experience of the enterprise (orrelated enterprises) regarding the problem, opportunity or event. Thescanned content may include e-mail communication within, to or from theenterprise; documents produced by the enterprise; application datarelated to the process including business objects; and/or Web contentaccessible to the enterprise. The enterprise stress point is a problem,opportunity, or unexpected or interesting event and relates to otherstress points further describing a risk, a cause, an effect, or aremedy.

Determining whether information is relevant to the problem, opportunityor event may further include determining the impact of completion of aprocess step on achievement of a goal related to a process includingthat process step; this is termed the goal proximity of the processstep. The goal proximity of a process step may also be used to determinerisk, which is an important relevance criterion.

A determination of goal proximity may also be used to find similarprocesses which, through similarity in their generic aspects andsimilarity of proximity to a goal, are considered similar; experiencesrelated to these similar processes are returned by the system for theattention of the users.

Determining relevance may be facilitated by identifying processes whichare characterized in the system by their generic process components,such that an inference of similarity or relevance between processes canbe drawn through their generic aspects. In addition, endemic problems oropportunities embedded in processes can establish further similarity orrelevance between processes.

The system may include a scanner for scanning content related to aprocess conducted by an enterprise; a language parser for identifyingconcepts within the scanned content; and an index engine for indexingthe scanned content with respect to a process node (the process nodehaving associated therewith a problem, opportunity or event), and fordetermining whether the scanned content is information relevant to theproblem, opportunity or event. The language parser and the indexingengine together assign a stress point relevance to concepts within thescanned content, thereby generating a stress point index for items ofthe scanned content.

The system may further include a user interface utilizing the stresspoint index to alert a user to a problem associated with a related setof processes; enable collaboration between users addressing a problem oropportunity associated with a process by restricting the returnedinformation to contemporaneous and historical information related toprocesses for which the users in the collaboration are stakeholders, andby enabling information related to subordinate processes to be returnedif that information is likely to cause risk to the processes for whichthe collaborating parties are stakeholders; or retrieve informationincluding a description or discussion of a previous experience relatingto a problem associated with a process. In an embodiment, the indexingengine is a middleware service.

According to another aspect of the disclosure, a user may navigate acognitive structure retrieving past and current experiences which may beused for a variety of uses described herein.

It should be noted that, in accordance with the disclosure,

when solving enterprise problems, exploiting enterprise opportunities,or explaining interesting or unexpected events occurring within thesphere of the enterprise,

the relevance of an item of content or data to the enterprise may bedetermined entirely by relating that content or data to the relevantenterprise stress points (process nodes) and to the elements of thecognitive structure most closely related to those process nodes;

similarities between processes may be determined entirely by referringto identification of the processes and their generic process components,the goal proximity of the respective processes to their dependentprocesses, and the endemic problems, opportunities or events associatedwith the processes; and

when a process node within a step is determined to present a risk, theseverity of that risk may be determined entirely by referring to (i) thegoal proximity of that step to its direct goal, (ii) the goal proximityof that step and its effect on further dependent goals, (iii) theestimated cost of failed goals and remedial action, and (iv) theprobability of the node in question experiencing a failure.

The foregoing has outlined, rather broadly, the preferred features ofthe present disclosure so that those skilled in the art may betterunderstand the detailed description of the disclosure that follows.Additional features of the disclosure will be described hereinafter thatform the subject of the claims of the disclosure. Those skilled in theart should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conceptionand specific embodiment as a basis for designing or modifying otherstructures for carrying out the same purposes of the present disclosureand that such other structures do not depart from the spirit and scopeof the disclosure in its broadest form.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an enterprise having goals andprocesses, with software for finding relevant information linked to theenterprise, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates aspects of a process node for a processof the enterprise.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates abstraction of activities underlying adefinition of a process node.

FIG. 4 illustrates goals and associated processes for an enterprise.

FIG. 5 illustrates some details of two processes, and problems relatingto those processes.

FIG. 6A illustrates goal proximity for various process steps.

FIG. 6B illustrates interaction between actors in an enterprise and agiven process step.

FIG. 7A schematically illustrates generic processes and more specificprocesses.

FIG. 7B schematically illustrates processes including process nodes orenterprise stress points.

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates process nodes representing risks,causes, effects and remedies across a plurality of processes.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure by which an expert usermay assign node attributes at various context specific levels ofabstraction.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for identifying genericprocesses and processes similar to a given original process, accordingto an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure by which an expert usermay populate a system with cases or recounted stories, according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method in which software buildsand utilizes a framework of enterprise stress points, according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIGS. 13A and 13B are connected flowcharts illustrating steps undertakenby a user of a system embodying the disclosure, in order to solve aproblem or exploit an opportunity.

FIG. 14 schematically illustrates a system for gathering information andindexing information against the enterprise stress points, according toan embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Introduction

Software embodying the present disclosure is referred to herein as“Overlay.” The Overlay is an aid for finding information within theenterprise; sources of this information are thus typically enterpriseinternal content and enterprise data, including communications withinthe enterprise and communications between the enterprise and outsideparties. Another source of information is external information relatedto the enterprise that the enterprise wishes to access regularly. Oneaspect of the Overlay is that it functions as a relevance engine, asopposed to a search engine; the Overlay retrieves only information thatis considered relevant to enterprise problems and opportunities andunexpected or interesting events.

The Overlay software uses relevance between enterprise processes andrelevance between enterprise stress points in such processes (that is,focus points in the business that represent hazards, expectationfailures, conflicts, risks, common causes and related areas of attentionand knowledge), to present to the user only relevant returns fromunderlying data and content, so as to accomplish the following:

Provide a user of the Overlay with an overview of underlying changes inany enterprise software/e-mails that may constitute an enterprise stresspoint for which the user is responsible. In a large organization it isimpossible for senior personnel to manually navigate and monitor allapplications in this way, or to have hard wired workflows of everypossible issue that might potentially constitute a problem. Sinceenterprise stress points are often caused by a combination of multipleevents, the Overlay helps to identify those enterprise stress points andavoids excessively granular notification when it is not wanted;

Enable the user of the Overlay to access enterprise content and/or datasystems (including email systems) from remote locations using a handhelddevice, and to render a filtered view of events affecting the enterprisestress points;

Enable the user of the Overlay to process events and co-ordinatewarnings as well as enrich content with knowledge related metadata; and

Enable the Overlay user to manage undesired events assisted by relevantlegacy content.

DEFINITIONS

Cause: An occurrence of potential occurrence that is deemed to be acause of an effect.

Root cause: An occurrence or potential occurrence that is deemed to bethe reason the cause has occurred.

Effect: An occurrence or potential occurrence that is deemed to effect aprocess or plan goal or conditional goal.

Risk: A potential effect. This can be both positive when it correspondsto an opportunity or negative when it corresponds to a problem.

Diagnosis: Finding the cause of problems and explaining interestingevents or causes of opportunity.

Organize. To be an abstraction of, to generalize, to group.

Goal Proximity/proximity: The percentage effect of a process step on thegoal of the process to which that step belongs.

Goals or conditional goals: The goals and conditional goals for which anenterprise process has been designed.

Cognitive structure: A structure that indexes information in a way thatfits known cognitive principles.

Primary means of understanding more about the problem or opportunity:The methods by which the most appropriate relevance is determined abouta problem or opportunity.

Cases/discussions/descriptions/experiences: These are cases ofexperiences which may describe all or part of cause, effect, risk, andremedy. They may include generalized explanations and models fordescribing how things behave in there processes where they are assigned.

Models: Generalized cases explaining cause and effect.

Explanations: Explanations of problems or opportunities or unexpectedevents.

Attributes: Characteristics of entities mentioned in this disclosure.

Responsible: A situation where an actor's attributes significantlyaffect the outcome of a process or process step.

Problems/failures: In the present disclosure, problems and failures areconsidered nodes within processes where highly experienced practitionersreasonably expect problems and/or failures or unexplained phenomena orphenomena of unexplained cause and effect.

Opportunities/successes: In the present disclosure, opportunities andsuccesses are considered nodes within processes where highly experiencedpractitioners reasonably expect opportunities and/or successes.

Event/unexpected event/interesting event: In the present disclosure, anevent is an occurrence that to a highly experienced practitioner isreasonably considered important to the enterprise and its goals.

Process nodes: Parts of processes where highly experienced practitionersexpect problems and opportunities.

Highly experienced practitioners: People who have been participating andhave been responsible for a process for which they are considered highlyexperienced for most of their careers and are aware of the particularprocess and its main characteristics, and are also aware of theprocesses dependent and subordinate to the process for which they areconsidered highly experienced.

Enterprise: Any organization or collection of organizations carrying onactivities for one or more known purposes; generally characterized bypredictability of goals at any one time, predictability of plans andprocesses to achieve those goals, and actors with substantially knownvalues, skills, knowledge, information, endurance, and emotion withrespect to goals.

Enterprise activity structure: A framework of related relevance criteriathat are recognized by practitioners in most domains.

Enterprise activity: Activities recognized by practitioners in eachdomain or in more than one domain.

External process: The external processes taking place outside theenterprise upon which some enterprise processes depend: e.g. design,construction, or education, and preparation activities that may be partof any process step; processes found to occur in the environment whichare not designed to serve known goals but affect enterprise processesand goals, for example discretionary human behavior: or processes notdirectly related to human behavior, such as environmental phenomena.

Practitioners: People who have average experience in the enterprise.

Overlay: A system and/or method in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

Endemic problems/opportunities/nodes: Problems, opportunities, orunexplained/potential/occasional occurrences, at various levels ofabstraction that are considered by highly experienced practitioners tobe repetitive in a variety of related processes. Endemicproblems/opportunities are associated with goals since problems andopportunities cannot be defined without first defining goals.

Object: An object in the domain which is part of a process.

Context: An environment in the domain within which a process takesplace.

Abstracted object: An object that may be abstracted and therefore mayapply to more than one domain

Abstracted context: A context that may be abstracted and therefore mayapply to more than one domain.

Domain: An industry, a department of a company, or any enterprisestructure where process steps and terminology are specific and yetpractitioners understand them.

Ossified: A property of an entity within the enterprise activity modelwhich varies but is considered constant, because practitioners expectthe property to be fairly constant and predictable.

Relevance criteria: Any entity which helps to build the enterpriseactivity model or structure

Circumstance: Context, object time or similar.

Process: A series of actions serving a set of goals and conditionalgoals. These can range from ossified processes, to establishedprocesses, to newly established processes, to plans that are processesyet to be put in practice.

Script: A process that is performed consciously and subconsciouslybecause it has been ossified.

Plan: A plan is a less well defined process where the steps in theprocess are ordered in a way fitting the current circumstances. The goalhierarchy of plans is often different from the underlying processes theyincorporate.

Inanimate process: A process that does not involve human intervention(such as a chemical process) and therefore may not have goals other thanthe goals of the process within which it has been designed by humans tobe a part. For example, corrosion is an inanimate process that ispredictable and well known, but nevertheless would not be considered agoal based process.

Non goal based animate processes: Processes that people experience butare not clearly goal based such as appreciating a certain type of musicor liking a certain colour. A common word for this is discretionary.

Condition: as defined in the English language and in AI.

Enterprise Goals and Processes

As shown schematically in FIG. 1, an enterprise 1 generally has goals 11and processes 12 designed to achieve those goals. Enterprises andenterprise departments generally have the following attributes withrespect to goals: collective values, collective skills, collectiveknowledge, collective information, collective endurance, and collectiveemotion. One or more enterprises may belong to a domain, defined as anindustry, a department of a company, or any enterprise structure whereprocess steps and terminology are specific and yet practitionersunderstand them. Practitioners in a given domain may thus be said tohave shared, specific knowledge.

The goals 11 may include enterprise goals (often expressed at a highlevel, so that specific processes are not associated therewith), maingoals (achievement of which directly affects one or more enterprisegoals), and conditional goals (that is, goals that are not the primaryreason for designing a process, but if not met may prevent achievementof the main goal or else may allow achievement of the main goal butrender that achievement undesirable). Processes may be goal-based(generally, carried out by actors in the enterprise in furtherance of agoal), non-goal based but enacted and not usually designed by humans, ornon-goal based and not enacted or designed by humans. Processes includethe function of machinery or any process designed by humans for humangoals but not necessarily enacted by humans. In carrying out the variousprocesses in an enterprise, risks are encountered; problems andopportunities arise; these problems have causes, effects, risk orpotential effects, and remedies.

Those parts 13 of processes where experience has shown that risks,problems and/or opportunities may present themselves, or unexpected orinteresting events may occur, are termed “enterprise stress points” or“process nodes.” Process nodes are often identified by experiencedactors 15 within the enterprise. The Overlay software 16, which in anembodiment is accessed by the enterprise as a service over the Web 100,searches enterprise internal content and data 14, and in some casesexternal data also, yielding information which is indexed against theidentified stress points. The indexed information then has a stresspoint relevance assigned thereto. The Overlay searches are naturallanguage searches, based on the process nodes in the enterprise and thewording used to describe them. The Overlay also searches for structureddata known to be related to each process node.

More generally, a process may be either internal and external, or somecombination of the two; the internal process being enacted in theenterprise, and the external process taking place outside theenterprise; e.g. design, construction, or education, and preparationactivities that may be part of any process step, processes found tooccur in the environment which are not designed to serve known goals butaffect enterprise processes and goals, for example discretionary humanbehaviour, or processes not directly related to human behaviour such asenvironmental phenomena.

Process Nodes

As shown schematically in FIG. 2, a process node 21 is characterized byone or more problems, opportunities and/or unexpected/interesting eventsin a process or in a process step of a process. The wording 22describing a process node is used in a natural language search 23 ofenterprise data and internal content (and other sources of information)24.

Process nodes for an enterprise represent components of a cognitivestructure (discussed further below). The process nodes as parts of acognitive structure contain discussion or descriptions of problemsand/or opportunities and/or events that practitioners find relevant togoals and/or processes in the enterprise, or sometimes outside thedirect activities of the enterprise. Such activities outside the directactivities of the enterprise can be, but are not limited to, otherenterprises; the business world; the political environment; the socialenvironment; the physical environment; the biological environment; orany environment which significantly affects an enterprise process.

Process nodes may also include variances to the discussion and/ordescriptions of potential problems or opportunities or events, asfollows:

-   -   (a) Discussion and/or description or data about a problem or        opportunity or unexpected event in executing one or more of the        goals or conditional goals in a process that        -   (1) at the time of the discussion or description, or at a            later time, was considered an effected process;        -   (2) constitutes a dependent processes to the process            effected;        -   (3) contains a problem or opportunity that could become            active should a subordinate process fail;        -   (4) contains a problem or opportunity, and/or a potential            problem or opportunity, in a subordinate process to the            process effected.    -   (b) Discussion and/or description or data regarding:        -   (1) An explanation of a problem opportunity or unexpected            event;        -   (2) A cause analysis of a problem or opportunity or            unexpected event;        -   (3) A root cause (cause of a cause) analysis of a problem or            opportunity or unexpected event;        -   (4) A plan considered an action to remedy a problem or            exploit an opportunity;        -   (5) A procedure describing how to avoid a problem or how to            exploit an opportunity.

Discussions or descriptions relating to a process node can be in text orin figures, or any combination that constitutes customary indicationused in enterprise software or content. This could include but is notlimited to spreadsheets, e-mails, documents, meta-data, data indatabases, electronic messaging, voice communications, etc.

A cognitive structure, as discussed herein, is a structure havinginformation indexed in a way that fits known cognitive principles, thecognitive principles being structured so that they relate to each otherin a way that permits the relevance of the information to be determined.

As shown schematically in FIG. 3, a cognitive structure 33 is anabstraction of day to day activities and their related objects; theseare activities and objects familiar to the average practitioner outsidethe domain of the enterprise because they are used in day to dayenterprise activities throughout most domains. Such enterpriseactivities and objects 32 include but are not limited to: users, userroles, tasks, contexts in which tasks and processes take place,enterprise objects, processes, goals, skills, values, actors in aprocess, or any generalization of these. A given process node representscomponents of the cognitive structure. All nodes and entities in thecognitive structure may have abstractions and/or be abstractions ofother entities.

Accordingly, cognitive structure 33 may include:

Goals

Goals and associated processes, and associated endemic nodes (discussedbelow)

Enterprises, enterprise departments, and associated roles, actors, andattributes (e.g. skills, values etc.)

Generalized process nodes

Specific process nodes

Lower level goals and associated process steps

Tasks and the actors or roles that enact them

Contexts and associated processes or tasks they affect

Objects and the associated processes or tasks they affect

Workflows

Users

The Overlay software is also a finder of information relevant to anyprocess or process node or any element of the cognitive structure.Information retrieval methods used by the Overlay software are appliedto this relevant information. These retrieval methods also apply to mostelements of the cognitive structure.

The term “relevant” includes, but is not limited to: related as aprocess at risk, as an additional process at risk, a cause process, anabstracted cause process, additional cause processes, remedial actionprocesses, related as a similar process to any other process, related bycommon context or object or abstraction of these, related by common nodeor abstraction, related by a common goal or conditional goal, orcombinations of these.

Information is irrelevant, for the purpose of the Overlay, if it is notthe primary means for understanding more about a problem, opportunity,or unexpected/interesting event.

The relevance of an item of content or data to the enterprise may bedetermined entirely by referring to the enterprise stress points(process nodes), as explained more fully below.

Analyzing Processes; Process Similarity

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of some goals and processes for anenterprise. In this illustration, a set of goals 41 for the overallenterprise has numerous processes designed to achieve those goals; oneprocess 42 has steps 43. The enterprise shown is involved in thetransport of goods, including specifically transport of goods by sea;accordingly, there is another set of goals 44 in the domain of theenterprise dealing with “Navigation.” In this example, a process 45 fornavigating from one point to another has these steps 46: seeing (e.g.finding navigational aids), moving (e.g. operating an engine), andplotting a course to the desired location. As shown in more detail inFIG. 5, the process step for “seeing” involves the need for eyeglasses;lost eyeglasses constitute a problem for that process step.

An enterprise in a different domain (e.g. military training) withdifferent goals 47 (e.g. firing a field gun) may nonetheless have someprocess steps similar to the navigation process 45. The group of goals47 includes main goals (“fire gun”, “hit target”) and conditional goals(“avoid other objects,” “avoid explosion”); the conditional goal “avoidexplosion” needs to be met so that goal “fire gun” can be achieved inthe manner desired. The process 48 for achieving the goal “fire gun”includes a step 49 for “see the target.” The activity “seeing” may beviewed as a generic activity relevant to both processes. In addition,process 48 includes a step 50 for “adjust gun.” The process step for“adjust gun” involves the need for a wrench, a lost wrench constitutes aproblem for that process step. The lost eyeglasses and lost wrench maybe viewed as examples of a generic problem (that is, a generic node),namely “lost tools.”

Several nodes and processes are labelled in FIG. 5 as context-specificor generic. It can be seen that processes in different domains arenevertheless related by generic processes and generic nodes. Moregenerally, once context-specific nodes are identified, thosecontext-specific nodes define more generic nodes. These more genericnodes in turn define generic components of context/domain specificprocesses for a given domain. These generic process components and theirgeneric nodes will exist in another domain at some level of generalityand thus indicate specific nodes in this different context/domain.

One process node can be similar to another process node; this isdetermined by process or process step similarity which is explained inmore detail herein. As shown in FIG. 5, process steps of differentprocesses often have commonalties. When a process step is common to twoprocesses, then the two processes are considered similar if the processstep is similarly able to affect the main process goal to which itbelongs. The effect that a process step has on the goal to which thatstep belongs is called the “goal proximity” of that process step.

The Overlay software finds cases similar to the problems and/oropportunities of a given process node by finding similar process nodes,and then indicating similar cases where the process and process node andgoal proximity are similar. In this regard, it should be noted that theOverlay does not rely on a vast array of process conditions for casesimilarity. The Overlay evaluates process similarity from goal proximityand from similarity of nodes and abstracted nodes or endemic nodes.(Abstracted nodes or endemic nodes provide an alternate way of definingabstracted processes, because processes are devised to deal with highlyabstracted endemic nodes at the most abstracted level.) In a givenprocess, process conditions are contained within that process; finding asimilar process will thus define comparable conditions. This is becausethe salient conditions are in fact incorporated in process nodes(problems and opportunities within the process). It follows that if theprocess nodes are defining criteria of a process, they are alsosufficient to define the conditions within that process.

It should be noted that the Overlay searches for similarities in bothprocesses and the nodes included therein. In general, processes aredeveloped to enable problem nodes to be avoided and opportunity nodes tobe exploited. A given process may have more than one node. It followsthat node similarity is included in process similarity.

In addition, the hierarchy of the goals in a process affects adetermination of similarity. Goal hierarchy of goals and conditionalgoals in a process determine the goal profile of a process; this isconsidered an additional defining characteristic of process similarity.Processes that have similar goal hierarchy are likely to be similar.Process similarity thus does not depend only on common process steps orcommon generalization of those process steps.

Goal Proximity; Success Probability

In general, not every process step is equally critical to achievingsuccess of the process goal. As noted above, the term “goal proximity”refers to the effect that a process step has on the main process goal towhich that step belongs. The goal proximity of a process step may bequantified in terms of how proximate the process step is to achievingsuccess or failure of the process goal(s) or the conditional goals. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 6A, achieving the goal “fire gun” is judged tobe 50% dependent on completion of the process step “adjust gun”.Achieving the goal “hit target” is judged to be 70% dependent oncompletion of the process step “see target”. These relationships areshown schematically by 61 and 62 in FIG. 6A. It follows that problems inprocess steps with high goal proximity have an increased impact on thesuccess of that process. Goal proximity provides an additional criterionfor process similarity; processes with similar effect on goals ofdependent processes, and processes which also have common generic orparticular characteristics (for example, common nodes), are consideredsimilar even if they occur in different domains.

The abundance of resources (or lack thereof) in a process is consideredan attribute of the process steps within the process. Accordingly, aredundancy of resources affects the goal proximity of the process.Furthermore, a problem or opportunity in a process step affects theproximity of the process step to the goal in accordance with theabundance of resources or redundancy of processes.

Actors (persons performing or otherwise concerned about a process) alsoaffect the success of a process. As shown schematically in FIG. 6B,actors affect the process steps for which they are primarilyresponsible. Actors generally have these attributes: values, skills,expertise, information, endurance, and emotion. Depending on the processsteps, other actor attributes may be considered relevant. The attributesin turn affect the probability of expected problems or opportunitieswith respect to a process step, and thus affect the goal of the process.In the example shown in FIG. 6B, actors 63 responsible for the step “seetarget” have skills, values and knowledge 64 which they bring to bear onboth the object(s) 65 involved with the process step and the context 66in which the step is performed. If the object used in the step “seetarget” is a viewing scope, and the context is fog, then the actor'sskill in using the scope in fog to see the target will have asignificant impact on success. It can be seen from this example thatprocess steps themselves also have goals (“find target using scope”),and actor attributes affect these goals. In general, the process stepswhich the actors perform or influence significantly have goals andconditional goals, and it is the goals and conditional goals of thesesteps or their constituents that the attributes of the actors influence.

Generic Processes and Nodes

Processes can be abstracted into generic process groups; processes maybelong to generic groups and processes may have generic process steps.For example, navigating a vessel can belong to a general process of“travel in control of a vehicle or vessel”, and it can have genericconstituents such as seeing, steering, planning, etc. Generic processesare processes which are not specific to a domain, and whichpractitioners with average expertise in another domain would recognize.In general, processes have generic components or belong to largergeneric processes.

Generic processes are less context-specific processes in a given domain.As they reach a higher level of abstraction, they contain less specificand more generalized nodes. The least context specific processes may beso general as to have no specific steps and thus may be difficult toidentify other than through endemic nodes (discussed further below).

Generic processes may be represented schematically as shown in FIG. 7A.A set of high-level goals 71 has a set of subsidiary goals 72, which inturn has sets of subsidiary goals 73, 74. Processes 75 and 76 aredesigned to achieve goals 73, 74 respectively. The solid boundaries inthe depiction of processes 75, 76 indicate that these processes aredomain-specific processes; the dotted lines represent a generic process77 and generic process substeps 78.

Generic processes may have nodes, contexts and objects that aregeneralized from the many domain processes they are found to be a partof by practitioners and the general public. They may be biased towardone or more particular domains when they have fewer attributes than ifall domains are considered. This applies to (but is not limited to)contexts, objects, generalized nodes, etc.

Process nodes may be schematically represented as shown in FIG. 7B. Anode appears in each of three process steps of process 700, and in twoprocess steps of process 710. Nodes 701-705 each may be a risk, cause,effect or remedy related to a problem/opportunity/event occurring withrespect to that process or some other process.

In process 700 shown in FIG. 7B, each of the process steps 711-713 has agoal proximity with respect to goal G1. There is also, separately, aprobability of failure of the process if the node represents a risk.These concepts are used to analyze the risk associated with the process.Unlike other risk analysis approaches, in the Overlay software risk isassigned by goal proximity, and separately assessing probability. Asdescribed above, goal proximity is a percentage assigned to the degreeto which a goal or conditional goal in a process is affected by thesuccess or failure of a subordinate process. Goal proximity forprocesses of equal level of subordination or dependence is additive to atotal of 1 or 100%. Each dependent process is dependent on the nextlower level of equally subordinate level processes. For example,directing a vessel in the navigation process is dependent on propulsionand steering 100%. Propulsion and steering is 100% dependent onelectrical power. At the level of the vessel directing process, thereare other process steps of equal subordination such as keeping watch,voyage planning and managing personnel.

Risk is assessed in terms of goal proximity. When a process node withina step is determined to present a risk, the severity of that risk may bedetermined entirely by referring to the goal proximity of that step withrespect to its direct goal, the goal proximity of that step with respectto further dependent goals, the cumulative cost of goal failure and thecumulative cost of remedial action of the goal failure.

Risk severity is not defined by a numerical probability of failure of aprocess step, or by a numerical estimate of the cost of failure. Riskseverity is instead defined by a probability of a problem node actuallypresenting the problem, and by the proximity of this node failure togoals of the immediate process and of more distant dependent processes.The risk severity may then be multiplied by the cost of the goalfailures potentially affected, as in other methods. It will beappreciated that goal proximity is a better defined probabilitycriterion, being based not only on frequency of process step failure,but also on resource redundancy.

Risk, or potential opportunity, may be estimated determined morequalitatively by availability of relevant experiences within theprocesses likely to be affected by a problem, as determined by the goalproximity of dependent processes. Further quantitative evaluation ofeffect, risk or opportunity is achieved by multiplying the goalproximity with the percentage probability of failures and opportunitieswithin subordinate processes.

Connected Processes

It should be noted that nodes representing risks, causes, effects orremedies serve to connect processes together. A simplified example ofthis is shown in FIG. 8.

An opportunity or unexpected event 80, as described in some content orrevealed by some data pattern, has a risk, cause, effect and remedyassociated therewith. In general, that risk, cause, effect and remedywill not all be found in one process. Process 81, associated with goalset 82, is distinct from processes 801, 802 that are associated withgoal set 83 and subsidiary goal sets 811, 812. These processes all havenodes associated with the problem/opportunity/event 80. In the exampleshown, nodes 85 indicate process steps in process 81 that present arisk. Node 86 at a step in process 801 indicates a cause of theproblem/opportunity/event, while node 87 indicates an effect thereof ona step in process 802. Node 88, at another step in process 801,represents a remedy.

Endemic Problems and Themes

As noted above, generic processes are less context-specific domainprocesses; as they reach a higher level of abstraction they contain lessspecific and more generalized nodes.

Generic processes can be abstracted into types; a type of genericprocess may be associated with a process at the domain level, and wouldbe recognized by an experienced practitioner in a similar domain. Forexample, travel is a different type of generic process than managingpersonnel. Certain problems or opportunities, at various levels ofabstraction, are considered by experienced practitioners to berepetitive over a variety of related processes. Suchproblems/opportunities are referred to as endemic. Endemicproblems/opportunities are associated with goals, since problems andopportunities cannot be defined without first defining goals.

A type of generic process is defined by its endemic problem/opportunityset. In the field of personnel management, for example, there are manypersonnel-related endemic problems and opportunities dating back toantiquity, and a whole domain of processes has grown to deal with thoseproblems and opportunities. Furthermore, high level generic processesare defined by their endemic nodes. In the Overlay, generic processesthat contain generalized nodes, and/or further generalizations, are alsogrouped under endemic problems or opportunities. This is done becausewhen processes become very general their process steps also become verygeneral, and the entire process becomes difficult to define except byreferring to the endemic problems or opportunities (usually calledthemes). In the Overlay, generic processes are defined by the set ofabstracted endemic problems or opportunities that they encompass.

In assessing process similarity, an additional similarity criterion isthe endemic problem(s) found in generic processes or process steps. Twoapparently different process steps with some very high level similaritycan found to be similar if they suffer from the same expected problemsor opportunities of an abstracted nature.

High level endemic problems or opportunities (themes) serve to organizelower level endemic problems more specific to a domain, which in turnserve to organize an unrestricted number of levels of endemic problemsin an unrestricted number of domains. Endemic problems or opportunities(themes) also organize high level generic processes, which in turnorganize an unrestricted number of lower level generic processes morespecific to domains.

Words used to describe generic processes are often shorthand for aseries of goals and associated endemic problems that would take too longto express in natural language. Therefore groups of endemic problems atvarious levels of abstraction can have names associated with genericprocesses at various levels of abstraction.

Objects and Contexts

As discussed above with reference to FIG. 6B, objects and contexts alterthe effect of the nodes on the process completion and the satisfactionof a goal. The nodes may become more or less likely to affect theprocess and its goals as a result of the context or object beingdifferent. In some cases, the process nodes are different when theprocess is very specific to a domain and has very specific contexts andobjects. Context and objects in turn are affected by the actors andtheir attributes (or enterprises or enterprise departments and theirattributes). Accordingly, different actors will generally have adifferent effect on the same process due to differences in object orcontext. The context or object itself may introduce more or lessprobability of affecting the process goal(s) or dependent processgoal(s).

Object and context changes have effects both on processes and on goalproximity. Goal proximity varies in accordance with processes. Butprocesses involve objects and contexts that may be different indifferent domains while the process is otherwise very similar.Therefore, for ease of adaptation of the Overlay from domain to domain,the Overlay incorporates relationships between object contexts and theirprocesses according to the domain, so that in a new domain the systemwill highlight those objects and contexts that are different and mayrequire reassessment of the goal proximity of each process step,especially when such steps are affected by the object or contextdifference. For ease of adaptation from domain to domain or enterpriseto enterprise, the Overlay may also include relationships betweencontext and objects and actors, users, and other elements of thecognitive structure.

Objects and contexts can be generalized or broken down intoconstituents, and can have relationships between them. Objects andcontext relevant to the enterprise have generalizations andconstituents, as well as relationships between them, which varyaccording to the goals and associated processes or plans in which theyplay a part.

The degree to which the system requires all or part of the attributes tobe dynamically related to each other is based on the experience andrequirements of each domain, and on the client application of thesystem. When not all the attributes are dynamically active, the defaultstatus is to hold constant the dynamic interrelationship of attributeswith the entity they would normally affect. For example, when actorattributes are considered average for the sake of convenience, thentheir effect on the probability of problems and opportunities arising ina process step is neutral. In another example, when the redundancy of aresource used in a process step is average, then the proximity of thatprocess step in affecting the goal is average. The effect of attributesis average when experts in the processes involved consider them averagefor that domain.

Objects and/or contexts, as well as time-related designations ofcontemporaneous events, serve to determine whether two indications of asimilar event are in fact the same event. This is important when thegoal of the search for relevant information is to find content and datacontemporaneous with that event.

Goal Hierarchy and Goal Conflicts

An investigation of the goal hierarchy and conflicts between goals in aprocess is required to determine which subordinate process step is moreimportant in any one circumstance. The more consistently the process isapplied, the more consistent the goal hierarchy, and the more attentionis paid to designing the process to avoid problems due to goalconflicts. When a process is varied and becomes more like a plan ofaction with new process steps and new goal structure, then the goalhierarchy and goal conflicts need to be re-established, and new processsteps applied to mitigate the negative effect of the goal conflicts andinappropriate results as a consequence of poorly maintained goalhierarchy.

Overlay Relevance Model: Goals, Processes and Nodes

It is useful, but not essential, to have a consistent relationshipbetween goals, processes, and nodes (referred to herein as a relevanceconvention). If the relationships between goals, processes, and nodesseem consistent for Overlay users but do not follow a convention, therelevance results (that is, cases of experience returned by therelevance engine) may still be highly satisfactory because currentpractices generally do not group goals, processes and nodes by anyconsistent convention. A relevance convention used in accordance with anembodiment of the disclosure is detailed below.

Node Attributes

Node attributes help define nodes so that nodes may be used to drawsimilarities between processes and similarities between cases ofexperience. This is normally done only by expert users of the system.Node attributes may be grouped as follows:

(1) Goals and actors: Goal conflicts may exist between actors that liebehind the nodes and the processes designed to overcome these conflicts.For example: A legal contract is designed as a process for agreeing onhow conflicts can be avoided or adjudicated; a machinery design is aprocess that overcomes the conflict between profit and cost of amachinery product; a taximeter is a process automation that overcomesthe conflict between the taxi service business and the client regardingprices.

Goal conflicts can exist between the goals of different actors and/orbetween main goals and conditional goals. A further type of goalconflict can exist between a goal and obstacles existing in theenvironment, while the goal is assisted by the assets available in thatenvironment. Assets and obstacles are context specific and are affectedby a specific goal conflict. For example, the conflict between qualityand cost affects the quality and efficiency of manufactured products;each product has particular assets and obstacles affected by this goalconflict. The customary goal conflict of quality versus cost, within themanufacturing processes and manufacturing machinery functionsencompassed by the product, has nodes associated therewith. The nodesassociated most closely with this goal conflict are the cause nodes ofany product malfunction. The goal conflicts therefore are closelyrelated to the nodes in the cause processes.

(2) Assets and obstacles: Assets and obstacles are the context andprocess specific elements that are most closely associated with eachnode. They are elements within processes that change in accordance withthe context, but also generalize into more generic assets and obstacleswhen grouped in the appropriate context generalisation. Referring againto the example of manufactured products and the inherent goal conflictbetween quality and cost, groups of similar products with designcommonalties within the same context (e.g. hydraulic fluid pumps) willhave similar problems characterized by the assets and obstaclesaffected. In addition, due to design variations between products in thesame contextual groups, there will also be assets and obstaclesassociated with problem nodes that are different between the products.Where this is the case, the context structure needs to separate theproducts further into individual products, with individual specificproblems and associated assets and obstacles. This means that the nodesof this very particular contextual grouping do not generalize acrossother contexts. However, all will be grouped under the goal conflict ofquality and cost. Accordingly, context groups govern the assets andobstacles that are active in active problem or opportunity nodes. Somecontexts involve more generic nodes and generalize more readily; someremain particular to very specific contexts.

The relevance of assets and obstacles to the node are governed by thecontext structure. Nodes are the manifestation of the assets facingobstacles that may cause a problem or opportunity in a process. When thenodes are not the result of goal conflicts between actors, but insteadbetween the goals of the process and the assets and obstacles of thecontext in which the process takes place, then the relevant assets andobstacles are those that are active when the problem or opportunity isactive.

(3) Cause nodes and affected nodes: Cause nodes accompany the affectednodes, and describe why a given node is active as a problem oropportunity or event. Nodes that may be active in cause processes, aswell as nodes that may be active in the affected processes, are used toidentify node attributes.

(4) Relationship between goal conflicts and cause nodes: Goal conflictsthat belong to the same abstracted group are caused by nodes withsimilar abstracted attributes, while the affected node attributes may bemore varied and less easy to group without specialized domain knowledge.The cause and effect relationship between cause nodes and affected nodesis helpful in associating nodes from one context specific domain toanother context specific domain.

Expert User Process

Expert Overlay users, when populating the cognitive structure of thesystem, assign node attributes at various context specific levels ofabstraction. The expert Overlay users then assign node attributes tohigher level abstractions. Computerized methods may also be used tomodel node attributes to assist the expert users.

Identifying Nodes

The following procedure (illustrated in FIG. 9) may be followed by anexpert user 920 to identify nodes at various levels of abstraction, inaccordance with the disclosure.

(1) Identify nodes: The expert overlay users identify the nodes found ina context specific process whose similarity to other processes is sought(step 921).

(2) Identify context relating to each node at the various levels ofabstraction (step 922). This is achieved through the domain (contextspecific) process model particular to the enterprise in which theprocess in question and the processes which depend on it are analyzedfor context specificity.

(3) Identify lower context level node attributes (step 923): The expertoverlay users identify the node attributes as described above as nodeattributes 930: Attributes 931 include context specific process goalsand conditional goals; goal conflicts; context specific assets andobstacles; and context specific cause and effect of the nodes for theprocess whose similarity with other processes is sought.

(4) Select from a set of abstracted lower context level node attributes(step 924): In other words select from a pre-populated set of nodeattributes at a stage of context abstraction above the level in steps 1to 3. The overlay system 940 shows the user a selection of higher levelnode attributes; the expert user selects higher level attributes 932 tomatch the lower level attributes of the nodes identified in step 3.

(5) Select for a higher or highest context level set of node attributes(step 925): The overlay shows a selection of higher or highest contextlevel enterprise node attributes. The expert user selects the highestlevel attributes that match the attributes identified in step 3.

The above series of steps can be applied to a selection of nodes so thatprocess similarity can be identified, or it can be applied to a singlenode so that nodes similarity can be identified.

Processes and their Relationship to Nodes

Process similarities are identified by comparing the attributes of thenodes of the contextually specific process to higher level abstractednode attributes. For example: A context specific process, such as seeinga target in a military training exercise, has several nodes (e.g.inability to see due to physical obstructions, inability to see due tobad light, inability to see due to scope malfunction, etc.). These inturn can be abstracted by an expert Overlay user into higher level nodeabstractions (e.g. inability to see due to obstacles, inability to seedue to atmosphere, inability to see due to loss of sight enhancingequipment). The new abstracted node cluster yields a higher levelgeneric process which is an abstraction of the specific process ofseeing a target.

The reverse of abstraction may be performed, to match higher levelgeneric processes to lower level context specific processes via nodeattributes, but in reverse order by taking more generic nodes and theirattributes and relating them to context specific nodes in the otherdomain. In this way two process in different domains or in similardomains but different contexts can be matched for similarity. Thissimilarity in turn provides the ability to draw on experience in onecontext specific domain to predict problems or opportunities in anothercontext specific domain.

Identifying a Similar Process

The following procedure (illustrated in FIG. 10) may be followed by anexpert user to identify processes in other domains which are similar toan original, context specific process 1070.

(1) According to this procedure, a generic process is first identified,as follows: The context specific process in an enterprise is taken withits context structure. The context structure is identified and matchedto a new domain in which the process will be compared (step 1071). Thismeans the context abstractions chosen need to match across as manydomains as envisioned to be working in one overlay system. Then thecontext specific nodes are identified at the most specific level ofcontext (step 1072). These context specific nodes have been assignednode attributes 1082 by expert users of the overlay using a specificmethod as shown above. The nodes and node attributes are abstracted tohigher context levels by the expert Overlay user (step 1073), to obtaina new abstracted node cluster (step 1074). The new abstracted nodecluster yields a higher level generic process (step 1075) which is anabstraction of the original context specific process.

The process that involves the largest number of original nodesabstracted to higher contexts is the highest level generic processrelated to the original process. The generic process is identifiediteratively (steps 1076, 1075): a) by expert users who name that processand assign it to a set of generic processes; b) by expert users whomatch the nodes and node attributes as described in the method above toverify that the process is unique and does not pre-exist in the set ofgeneric processes by having the same nodes and node attributes; c) byexpert users who may break down the prospective generic process intogeneric process steps, apply the above mentioned process regardingmatching node attributes in these smaller constituent steps (with fewernodes), and then assemble the process from its constituent steps to alarger generic process. However, assembling a larger generic processfrom smaller ones restricts the level of generality of the process sinceit will need to have the same constituent steps. The approach ofassessing generality of smaller constituent steps is more suitable whenthe steps cannot be easily changed as in machinery functions and othermore rigid processes. Starting with more complex processes with manyconstituent nodes is more suitable for planning where the process stephave yet to be defined.

In other words, the level of process granularity (to which the abovemethods regarding node attributes and their abstraction into higherlevel processes are applied) can vary according to the expert user'schoice or focus. If the methods are applied to lower level subordinateprocess steps (more granular) within larger processes, then the processsimilarity can be taken to higher level processes by goal proximity andmatching the number of subordinate processes. If the methods applied areapplied to higher level processes (less granularity) there can beprocess similarities drawn at higher levels with less emphasis onsimilarity of subordinate steps. Each method has different advantages.The more granular method is better for comparing processes with similarsteps and similar goals, the less granular method is best for comparingprocesses of similar goals but different methods.

(2) Finding a similar process in many different contextually specificdomains: After the highest level generic process is identified (step1077), the expert user proceeds to find more context specific processesof which it is an abstraction. In general, the high level process willbe generic to context specific processes in different domains 1081.

To test which context specific processes fit closest, find which contextspecific processes contain the most nodes which have the closest set ofnode attributes to those of the generic process (step 1078). This isachieved by comparing node attributes at the various levels ofabstraction, starting at the highest.

(3) Apply goal proximity to compare the importance of the commonprocesses in each respective domain (step 1079): This step is moreimportant than the following step in instances where the effect of theprocess on goals it serves is a more important or more revealingsimilarity criterion. This similarity tests whether the new contextuallyspecific process has a similar goal proximity to its main goal andconditional goals as does the original process in another context. Thisincludes dependent processes which are potentially affected by the nodeswhose abstractions are common between the contextually specificprocesses being compared. This comes before context similarity when theimportance of a process needs to be similar between the processes beingcompared.

(4) Apply a node attribute test (step 1080) to find the context/objectcluster that is most susceptible to the nodes selected. This requiresknowledge of the workings of such context and objects across domains(usually a much more narrow range of domains) so as to ascertain thesusceptibility to the nodes selected. This step is more important thanthe preceding step in instances where the context specific obstacles andassets are more important as a relevance focal point, and also in caseswhere the similarities across context of the nodes of a particular caseare more important than similarities of a process. In other words, theselection of nodes is narrower and does not fully satisfy the nodes of abroad process but may group a larger number of processes and contextswith the node of interest in common. For example, most machineryfailures have case nodes that apply to particular machines with design,manufacturing and operating criteria that would be susceptible to thesame failure. To find these other machines the nodes selected in thegeneric process selected need to be fewer and the expert user must makethe match of node attributes based on knowledge of these other machinesand their susceptibilities.

It should be noted that in practice finding similar single nodes acrosscontexts/domains is just as important as finding clusters of similarnodes. In an embodiment, this problem may be dealt with by identifyingfirst and second contexts for the node. The node is specific to thefirst context, so that the node is characterized as a firstcontext-specific node. The second context is at a higher level ofabstraction than the first context, so that the node is not specific tothe second context. There will then be two sets of node attributesassociated with the node, in accordance with the first and secondcontexts respectively. At least one generic node may then be identified,where the generic node has attributes in accordance with high contextlevel enterprise node attributes.

Populating the System with Cases

FIG. 11 schematically illustrates a procedure 1180 for populating thesystem with cases (thereby facilitating solving problems or exploitingopportunities using the Overlay, by making available the collectiveexperience of the enterprise). The user populates the system by enteringprocess, nodes, goals and goal proximities (step 1181). These may beentered using the experience of industry practitioners. Cases 1186 areentered using assistance from an index engine 1187 to index stories 1185recounted by experts and/or recorded by the enterprise. Nodes are theproblems and opportunities manifested in discussions about causes,effects, remedies, and explanations as found in the cases (recountedstories). In this exercise context specific processes, contexts, goals,causes, effects and goal proximities are established.

Abstracting Processes: Cross-Contextual Similarity

In a second stage of populating the system, expert users of the Overlayapply generalizations of processes and generalizations of nodes (step1182) to enable non-expert users to find similar processes betweendomains and across contexts. Experts using indexing assistance from theOverlay may match nodes through their attributes to infer processgenerality and process similarity (step 1183).

Overlay Method Steps

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating how the Overlay system findsproblems in the enterprise, and provides users with relevant previousexperiences; that is, lessons learned from prior risks, causes, effects,and remedies (also called stories).

The method performed by the Overlay is centered around building aframework of enterprise stress points. The goals of the enterprise(enterprise goals and main goals, as mentioned above) are established instep 901. The various processes designed to achieve those goals areestablished in step 902. The effect of the processes (goal proximity) isestablished in step 903. In step 904, problems, opportunities and eventsrelating to the processes are identified. In step 905, a framework ofenterprise stress points is built, in accordance with: the processdescriptions; problems, opportunities, and events affecting theprocesses; causes, effects, risks and remedies; and how the processesaffect each other.

It should be noted that building the framework includes identifyingsimilar processes. As discussed above, this involves identifying commonprocess steps and/or applying other criteria to the various processes.

The processes are analyzed in order to identify process generalizationsand thus to identify generic processes (step 906). In step 907, genericnodes and endemic themes are identified from the processes. Theenterprise internal content and enterprise data are scanned, and thescanned content is indexed against the enterprise stress points using anindexing engine (step 908). The system determines the impact of a givenproblem on a given process, and routes a description of the problem tothe users most concerned with the problem (steps 909-910). The systemproceeds to structure collaborations in accordance with the stress pointframework, focusing user collaborations on the key points affected bythe problem, the problem's causes, and the problem's remedies (step911). From the indexed information, the system retrieves relevantprevious experience and returns those relevant stories to the users(step 912).

Problem Solving Using the Overlay

A method for solving a problem (alternatively, exploiting anopportunity, making a decision, or answering a question) using theOverlay system, from a user's point of view, is illustrated in theconnected flowcharts shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B.

It should be noted that the method described herein is iterative, andthe order of steps depends on how close the problem or opportunity is toa previous problem or opportunity and how well the problem oropportunity has been managed in a known process. If the problem oropportunity is not well known and the process with which it can beremedied is not well established, then the order of steps and emphasisis different from that described herein.

A user dealing with a problem (or opportunity, decision or question)1001 first outlines a tentative plan in his or her mind around theproblem to be solved (step 1010); the plan is devised outside thesystem. The corresponding system action (step 1020) is to let the userselect a few generic processes which the plan organizes. These processescan be returned in a variety of ways by including a set of minor wordsearches using preconfigured searches on generic processes or goals; inother words, to provide a rudimentary concept search on the cognitivestructure. Usually a narrower scope of process selection, resulting inmore specific processes, is required than that returned by a goalsearch, more narrow than that returned by a generic process search, andbroader than that returned by a specific process search.

In step 1011, the user selects a narrower set of processes and then theuser selects the goals corresponding to the processes returned by thesystem, and the system makes an initial hierarchy of goals (step 1021).The hierarchy of goals is modified (step 1012; system action in step1022), taking into account the actors involved in the processes and howtheir goals affect the hierarchy and how the goals selected conflictwith each other. The fewer processes selected (which in turn depends onhow well known and established the problem or opportunity is and howwell known and established the remedial action process is), the more itis likely that the goal conflicts and hierarchy will be the same as inthe process selected.

In step 1013, the user retrieves the endemic nodes within the selectedprocesses (that is, the processes selected in the outlined plan). Thecorresponding system action (step 1023) is to retrieve the endemicproblems for the set of processes. The user highlights relatedprocesses, using the endemic problems; the system selects still moreprocesses, which are known to relate to the identified endemic nodes(steps 1014-1024). The user then selects stories and experiences fromthe selected processes, which are organized by processproblems/opportunities and endemic problems/opportunities. The storiesare retrieved by finding a relevant group of processes, according tonode commonality and goal proximity to related processes (steps1015-1025).

As the user gathers past experience and is reminded of his or her ownexperiences by the stories (content and data related to problems,opportunities and interesting/unexpected events), the system assists theuser to readjust his goals and goal hierarchy and to highlight goalconflicts, so as to enable retrieval of processes best fitting theresultant goal hierarchy and conflicts (steps 1016, 1026).

Using the returned stories, the user formulates and tests a tentativesolution (step 1017). The user then selects further processes, modifiesthe outlined plan, and tests the modified plan (steps 1018, 1019). Theplan is not necessarily retained in the system, other than described ina discussion with colleagues on a common discussion document managed bythe Overlay. The plan may be retained if it is advantageous to do so;for example, if the experience is considered useful for futurereference, especially if the plan has a goal hierarchy that undercertain circumstances is better than the standard process it replaces.The retrieved stories help the user to devise the best possible planusing the collective experience of the participants. The Overlay helpsretrieve past experiences via stories, and helps co-ordinate the rightstakeholders in the discussion.

Overlay System

A system for executing the Overlay includes an indexing structure (orindexing engine) which defines methods of achieving relevance betweennodes or enterprise stress points. The indexing structure contains wordpatterns and data patterns including business objects relevant to thenodes or enterprise stress points. The system also includes a languageparser and scanners which are used to scan existing or new content andassign that content to process nodes. The indexing structure of theOverlay system helps users find information relevant to enterprisestress points, more effectively than using conventional search engines.

It should be noted that relevance of content in the enterprise isdetermined exclusively by addressing process nodes. The user defines acognitive structure to perform indexing; critical criteria for relevanceare defined within the cognitive indexing structure.

An implementation of the Overlay software, in accordance with anembodiment of the disclosure, is shown schematically in FIG. 14. TheOverlay includes content scanners 1101 for scanning enterprise contentand enterprise data and related external data as well including businessobjects; a language parser 1120; and an indexing engine 1150. Thescanners obtain content from a variety of sources; for example, e-mails1102, documents 1103, application data including business objects 1104,and Web content 1105. The language parser 1120 identifies conceptswithin the scanned content 1110, and cooperates with the indexing engine1150 to assign a stress point relevance to those concepts. In the caseof application data the stress point relevance is preconfigured, so theOverlay looks for specific data in specific locations within theapplication. The resulting stress point index 1160 supports a range ofuser interfaces 1170. The user interfaces utilize the stress point indexto alert users to problems, enable collaboration between users, restrictthe returned information to processes for which the users arestakeholders (even if the information is as yet only directly related tosubordinate processes for which they are not stakeholders); and retrieveprevious related experiences. In the embodiment shown, the userinterfaces include a Web-based search interface 1171, a Web-basedcollaboration tool 1172, a portal-based interface 1173 for applicationintegration, a mobile device interface 1174 for alerts, collaborationand searches relevant to the problem, and an interface 1175 to integratethe stress point index to one or more desired office applications.

The indexing engine indexes information against the enterprise stresspoints, using indexing model 1130. The indexing model is constructedusing case histories (stories of how the enterprise dealt with stresspoints in the past) 1106 and current cases of problem-solving in theenterprise 1107. Both current and past cases are thus used to populatethe system. Analysis of current cases creates the indexing for the caseagainst the cognitive structure. Past cases can be entered asexperiences as a separate process not directly a part of enterpriseproblem solving.

Furthermore, in populating the system the indexing engine performs crosscontextual referencing; this enables the system to be populated withexperiences and content related word concepts in new domains, by usingthe generic aspect of processes and generic nodes from previouslypopulated domains. Context specific nodes define more generic nodes.These more generic nodes in turn define generic components ofcontext/domain specific processes. These generic process components andtheir generic nodes, will exist in the new domain at some level ofgenerality and thus indicate specific nodes in this differentcontext/domain.

The indexing engine may provide indexing services to other softwareproducts, including third-party products such as: content managementsystems; search solution products; ERP systems; or any other system thatwould benefit from the addition of stress point relevance software.

In an embodiment, the indexing engine 1150, which is the core of theOverlay, is a middleware service provided via Web services.

A system according to the disclosure may be used to

-   -   identify content relevant to nodes;    -   understand the enterprise by relating nodes to each other in the        cognitive structure;    -   solve problems in the enterprise; and    -   find stray information in the enterprise.

Some benefits of using the Overlay system are as follows:

-   -   assess process similarity between two processes being compared;    -   describe processes and plans relevant to the enterprise;    -   find related information about problems and opportunities;    -   find stray information (unresolved notices) about problems and        opportunities;    -   assess risk and consequences of problems and opportunities;    -   anticipate problems and opportunities:    -   diagnose problems and opportunities;    -   apply remedial action plans to problems and opportunities;    -   make strategic plans about problems and opportunities;    -   give users insight into causes and effects in an industry;    -   permit users to be creative in dealing with problems and        opportunities;    -   aid users in explaining complex phenomena about the workings of        an enterprise or the environment in which the enterprise        operates and which significantly affects the enterprise;    -   aid experts assisting companies in solving problems or taking        advantage of opportunities for that company; and    -   find relationships between elements of a cognitive structure        based on enterprise activities.

While the disclosure has been described in terms of specificembodiments, it is evident in view of the foregoing description thatnumerous alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent tothose skilled in the art. Accordingly, the disclosure is intended toencompass all such alternatives, modifications and variations which fallwithin the scope and spirit of the disclosure and the following claims.

I claim:
 1. A system for finding information relevant to a processrelevant to an enterprise, the system comprising: a computing deviceincluding a model of the enterprise, where processes of the model havenodes characterized as model nodes, so as to enable relevance to bedetermined between model nodes and between content and data and modelnodes; a scanner for scanning said content and data of the enterprisewith respect to word patterns and data patterns associated with nodes ofthe enterprise.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein: an indexing engine isconfigured to index information obtained by said scanner with respect toa process node and to rank indexed information according to relevancy toan enterprise stress point; and a user interface for presenting to auser with indexed information effective to aid a user in at least one ofsolving the problem, exploiting the opportunity, or understanding theevent.
 3. The system of claim 2 wherein said information includes atleast one of content methods normally used for communication in theenterprise such as e-mail communication within, to or from theenterprise; documents used by the enterprise; application data relatedto the process; and Web content or data accessible to the enterprise. 4.The system of claim 3 wherein the process node corresponds todiscussions or data relating to at least one of a cause, effect, risk,or remedy or combination thereof associated with the process node. 5.The system according to claim 4 wherein the system is populated with atleast one of histories of past cases and information relating to presentcases including past and present experiences, respectively, of theenterprise stress point.
 6. The system of claim 2 wherein: saidcomputing device is configured to provide relevant information to theuser and enable collaboration between a plurality of users addressing aproblem or opportunity by giving access to contemporaneous informationand historical information directly related to said problem oropportunity and or retrieve information including a description ordiscussion of contemporaneous information or previous experiencerelating to the problem or opportunity the process node has associatedtherewith a user characterized as a stakeholder for that process node,and said user interface utilizing the relevance index to: (i) alert theuser to a problem or opportunity associated with a process node forwhich that user is a stakeholder, and (ii) where the process node has atleast one subordinate process node associated therewith for which thestakeholder is not a direct stakeholder, to alert that stakeholder whois not a direct a direct stakeholder of that process node to the problemor opportunity associated with the subordinate process node in anappropriately weighted way to the degree of effect on the process nodeof his stakeholding.
 7. The system of claim 6 being effective to enablecollaboration between said plurality of users addressing the problem oropportunity associated with the process by restricting the returnedinformation to contemporaneous and historical information related toprocesses for which the users in the collaboration are stakeholders, andby enabling information related to subordinate processes to be returnedif that information is likely to cause risk to the processes for whichthe collaborating parties are stakeholders; or retrieve informationincluding a description or discussion of a previous experience relatingto a problem associated with a process.
 8. The system of claim 2 whereina plurality of enterprise stress points are interlinked by at least oneof cause and effect and similarity.
 9. The system of claim 8 whereby therelevance of content or data to the enterprise may be determined byrelating that content or data to the relevant enterprise stress pointsand via the enterprise stress points to the elements of cognitivestructure assigned to those enterprise stress points.
 10. The system ofclaim 8 further effective to retrieve or access information relevant toa node of interest, including access to information about similarprocesses nodes.
 11. A method for finding information relevant to aprocess performed by an enterprise or relevant to an enterprise stresspoint of said process, the enterprise stress point being a problem,opportunity or event associated with at least one process step of saidprocess, the method embodied in a system capable of transacting thesteps comprising: retrieving information related to activities of theenterprise; assessing said information with respect to predictivepatterns associated with a predefined set of enterprise stress points;indexing said information with respect to the enterprise stress points;and presenting to a user indexed information effective to aid the userin at least one of solving the problem, exploiting the opportunity, orunderstanding the event.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein saidretrieval is performed upon a system identifying a process node that ispresenting a current risk and the retrieving step includes retrievingrelevant information.
 13. The method of claim 12 wherein said retrievingstep includes at least one of scanning content of the enterprise againstthe predictive patterns, scanning data of the enterprise against thepredictive patterns and retrieving current or historical data related tothe enterprise stress point.
 14. The method of claim 13 wherein a set ofenterprise stress points is defined by at least one domain expert inaccordance with a past experience of the enterprise and individual onesof the enterprise stress points are linked to other ones of theenterprise stress points by cause and effect.
 15. The method of claim 11wherein said method is performed by a user selecting an enterprisestress point and the retrieving step is retrieving at least one ofcontemporaneous information, contemporaneous historical information ofpast experience, and similar experience.
 16. The method of claim 11wherein said method is performed upon the system identifying anenterprise stress point that is presenting a current risk and theretrieving step comprises retrieving contemporaneous information. 17.The method of claim 11 wherein said assessing step includes an expertsetting the system up with predictive patterns so as to identify atleast one of a cause, effect, risk, or remedy related to the enterprisestress point.
 18. The method of claim 11 wherein the informationpresented to a user is relevant information including at least one of adescription or discussion of content or data of a current experience,contemporaneous experience, a previous experience and a similarexperience of the enterprise or a similar experience of anotherenterprise regarding said problem, opportunity or event.
 19. The methodof claim 18 wherein the relevance of an item of content or data to theenterprise is determined in accordance with relation of said item to theenterprise nodes or stress points.
 20. The method of claim 19 whereinsaid information includes at least one of content methods normally usedfor communication in the enterprise such as e-mail communication within,to or from the enterprise; documents produced by the enterprise;application data related to the process; and Web content or dataaccessible to the enterprise.
 21. The method of claim 14 wherein anexpert determines an impact of completion of a process step with itsassociated nodes on achievement of a goal related to a directlydependent process with its associated node, a result of said determiningcharacterized as a goal proximity of said process step to the dependentprocess step.
 22. The method of claim 21 wherein the process nodecorresponds to a risk or opportunity to its immediately dependentprocess steps and associated node, and further comprising assessing saidrisk or opportunity by: determining the goal proximity of the processstep and associated nodes with the immediately dependent processes andtheir nodes, determining a value associated with each goal related tosaid dependent process with associated nodes, each said goal accordinglybeing potentially affected by failure or success of the processsubordinate to it which includes said subordinate process step withassociated nodes, determining a value associated with a remedial actioncompensating for said failure or a reward associated with success of anopportunity, and determining a probability of said failure or success.23. The method of claim 22 wherein assessing said risk or opportunityincludes determining resources available to the enterprise in performingsaid process step while such resources may include process redundancymeasures.
 24. A method for an expert to determine similarities betweenat least two processes, comprising: comparing process nodes in processesand determining commonalties between the process nodes in saidprocesses.
 25. The method of claim 24 wherein said method is fordetermining similarity of process nodes in a process, in a case wherethe process has different contexts, comprising the steps of: identifyingthe nodes associated with the process; identifying a first context forthe process, the process being specific to said first context so thatthe process is characterized as a first context-specific process;identifying a second context for the process, said second context beingat a higher level of abstraction than said first context, so that theprocess is not specific to said second context; identifying a first setof attributes associated with said nodes and in accordance with saidfirst context; selecting a second set of attributes associated with saidnodes and in accordance with said second context; identifying attributesin the second set of attributes matching attributes in the first set ofattributes; establishing a set of said identified attributes, saididentified attributes characterized as high context level enterprisenode attributes; and identifying a generic process, where said genericprocess has nodes associated therewith, said generic process nodeshaving attributes in accordance with said high context level enterprisenode attributes.
 26. The method of claim 25 wherein the node attributesinclude at least one of a goal conflict, an asset, an obstacle, a cause,or an effect specific to each level of context abstraction.
 27. Themethod of claim 26 wherein said step of identifying the generic processis performed iteratively by an expert.
 28. The method according to claim27 wherein in said selecting step, an expert selects from apre-populated set of attributes.
 29. The method of claim 25, furthercomprising the steps of: identifying additional context-specificprocesses with associated nodes of which said generic process withassociated nodes is an abstraction; performing at least one of comparingsaid additional context-specific processes with associated nodes withsaid first context-specific process with associated nodes in accordancewith a goal proximity to matching goals of each respective processincluding dependent goals, comparing said additional context-specificprocesses with associated nodes with said first context-specific processwith associated nodes according to commonalties with respect to nodeattributes associated with said processes, comparing said additionalcontext-specific processes with associated nodes with said firstcontext-specific process with associated nodes according to commonaltieswith respect to goal conflicts affecting the context-specific processeswith said first context-specific process, and comparing said additionalcontext-specific processes with associated nodes with said firstcontext-specific process with associated nodes according to commonaltieswith respect to subordinate processes and embedded process steps; andidentifying processes similar to said first context-specific process inaccordance with a result of the at least one of said comparing steps.30. The method of claim 29 wherein said step of identifying the specificprocess is performed iteratively by an expert.
 31. The method of claim29 wherein the enterprise has a plurality of abstracted processes nodeswith associated attributes, and said processes nodes are organized intogeneric process node groups which further organize more context specificprocess nodes and groups.
 32. The method of claim 29, further including:a user identifying a generic node of interest; and a system returning agroup of more context-specific process nodes having said generic node ofinterest in common. able to the enterprise in performing said processstep while such resources may include process redundancy measures. 33.The method of claim 25 wherein the user retrieves or accessesinformation relevant to a node of interest, including access aboutsimilar process nodes.
 34. The method according to claim 19 whereby therelevance of an item of content or data may be determined by relatingthat content or data to a relevant enterprise stress point and saidenterprise stress points can be navigated by users via enterprisecognitive structure.